Leni Riefensthal's Olympia

The best part of the 2004 Oscars happened during the "In Memoriam" segment, when everyone flying on empathy autopilot crashed and burned at Leni Riefenstahl's name on the screen, and people suddenly realized whom they were applauding. The best part of your weekend will happen when you try to convince someone to go with you to today's screening of Riefenstahl's Olympia,and that 226 minutes spent watching a 76-year-old recording of the Olympics is better than watching the 2012 Olympics at home. In two parts -- Fest der Volker (Festival of Nations) and Fest der Schonheit (Festival of Beauty) -- with an intermission, Olympia was a document of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and it's screened from a new 35mm print for the first time in many years here. As that selfsame document, it recalls those first films in which various motion studies -- jumping, running, equestrianism -- blew everyone's minds because the medium was so new and vibrant, just like the Olympics. Cinefamily, 611 N. Fairfax Ave.; Fri., Aug. 10, 3:45 p.m.; $12. (323) 655-2510, cinefamily.org.
Fri., Aug. 10, 3:45 p.m., 2012